Attachment



PATENTED DEG. 23, 1851.

No. 8,608'. G. W. INGALLS..

AEOLIAN ATTACHMENT.

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UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

GUS. W. INGALLS, OF CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

EOLIAN ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 8,608, dated December 23, 1851.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, GUsTAvUs l/V. INGALLS, of Concord, in the county of Merrimac and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful improvement in Colemans aeolian attachment or combination of a piano or stringed instrument and the melodeon or reed instrument, whereby both or either may be played by one set of keys; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully dcscribed and represented in 'the following specification and accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure l, denotes a top view of a portion of the works of a piano forte, to which my improvement is applied. Fig. 2, is a vertical, and transverse section thereof.

In the said drawings, A, represents the key lever of the piano, the strings and action thereof not being exhibited, as they are made and applied in any of the well known methods.

B, is the valve of one of the reeds of thc melodeon, and is placed underneath the key lever in the ordinary way, and is opened by the depression of the key, which acts upon the valve through a projection a (from the underside of the key,) and a sliding rod on top of which is a button or head c, for the projection a, to rest upon. The rod ZJ, is supported by a bar eZ, through which it passes, and plays freely, its lower end resting on the valve. This bar (Z, is hinged to the top of the valve plate e, as seen at f, so that it may be thrown into the position denoted by red lines, or such a position as will move the head 0, of the rod in a lateral direction entirely beyond the projection a, and in such manner as to prevent such projection from acting on the head o, so as to create or cause any opening of the valve during the time of the depression of the key lever.

In order to produce the lateral movements of the bar d, such bar may have an arm h, extended upward from one end or any other proper part of it, to which bar a latch z', may be jointed, which, operating in connection with a catch Za, may be made to confine the bar in such manner as to either confine the button in a proper position to be depressed by the projection a, or in such a position, as shall keep it out of the sphere of such action.

In the common aeolian piano fortes, it has been customary to make the bar CZ, immovable. Consequently when it has been desirable to play or perform on the piano alone, the key of the piano had to work againstthe valve rod of the melodeon or reed, it only being necessary to put the bellows in action to produce at such time a sound from the reed. The eXtra duty imposed on the key,` (viz, the depression of the valve) when the piano alone was played, not only created unnecessary wear of the parts, but rendered the touch hard, and has been a source of universal complaint, and a serious objection to the attachment of the reed and piano, or wind and string instruments. By combining with the supporting contrivance of the reed wires, a means or mechanism for removing such reed wires out of action with the projections of the key levers, we are enabled to play the piano without at the same time imposing on the keys the extra or additional duty of operating the valves, and acting against the recoil springs thereof.

Vhat I claim as my invention or improve ment is The combining with the valve stem or rod a movable bar (Z or any equivalent mechanism, by which such valve stem, or the head thereof, whenever desirable may be moved out of action with the key lever, for the purpose essentially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature, this fifteenth day of Julv A. D. 1851.

GUSTAVUS W. INGALLS. lVitnesses:

LEwIs L. MowER, SYLvEs'rER DANA. 

